[SELECTED  FOR  THE  SOLBIEES.J  No.  12 

PREPARE  TO  MEET  THY  GOD. 


Solemn  admonition  !  To  whom  is  it  addressed?  Reader, 
it  is  addressed  to  you'.  It  may  be  the  last-  that  the  God 
of  infinite  mercy  will  ever  give  you.  lie  has  often  spoken 
to  von  before:  sometimes  in  the  language  of  threatening, 
sometimes  in  the  tender  tones  of  invitation  and  promise. 
He  has  addressed  you  by  his  word,  and  by  his  ministers— 
by  his  judgments,  and  by  his  mercies.  His  next  call 
may  be  irom  the  throne  of  judgment.  O,  then,  as  you 
value  your  immortal  soul,  "To  dtiy.  if  you  will  hear  his 
voice  harden  not  your  heart."  "Prepare  to  meet  thv 
God." 

Consider  the  certainty  of  the  event.  You  w.vst  meet 
God.  Other  events  may  be  doubtful ;  other  meetings  may 
never  take  place  :  but  from  this  there  is  no  escape  :  "We 
must  all  appear  before  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ/'  "So 
then  every  one  of  us  shall  give  accdunt  of  himself  to  Gfiwh" 
Willing  or  unwilling,  prepared  or  unprepared,  you  must 
appear  in  the  presence  of  God. 

This  meeting  may  take  place  soon — it  cannot  be  very 
far  distant.  If  delayed  to  old  age,  it  will  soon  arrive. 
Theinterveningyears  are  lost  in  comparison  with  eternity . 
But  you  may  never  See  old  8ge  ;  you  may  never  see  an- 
other year  :  nay,  another  day,  another  hour*  may  usher 
your  soul  into  the  presence  of  your  Judge. 

Consider  ioho?n  you  are  to  meet.  Not  a  man  like  your- 
self; not  an  angel,  however  exalted,  but  God  !  the  infi- 
nite Creator  and  Governor  of  the  universe :  a  iScing  whose 
majesty  and  glory  fill  the  highest  seraph  with  awe;  a 
Being  of  perfect  holiness,  inflexible  justice,  unchanging 
truth,  as  well  as  boundless  goodness  and  mercy.  Reader 
he  is  thy  God.  Thou  mayest  never  have  acknowledged 
him  as  such  ;  thou  mayest  never  have  chosen  him  as 
thy  portion  :  vet  he  is  thy  Creator,  thy  Preserver,  thy  Sov- 
ereign and  jfidge.  On  him  thou  art  entirely  dependant; 
to  him  indebted  for  every  blessing  ;  and  thou  art  accoun- 
table for  the  use  thou  hast  made  of  all  his  gifts.  Art 
thou  ready  to  appear  in  his  presence  ?  He  is  e-rainy  to  judg- 
ment! "The  voice  of  the  archangel  and  the  trump  of  God'; 
announce   .his   approach.      "Behold,    he   comoth    with 


2  PREPARE   TO   MEET   THY   GOD. 

clouds."  The  startled  world  looked  up  in  amazement ; 
the  millions  of  the  dead  are  waked  and  stand  before  the 
Judge  in  silent  and  awful  expectation  :  and  thou  among 
them,  reader.  The  hooks  are  opened,  and  the  dead  are 
judged  out  of  the  things  that  are  written  in  the  books, 
every  one  according  to  his  deeds. 

Say  not  with  the  cavillers  of  "the  last  days,"  "Where 
is  the  promise  of  his  coming?"  "The  day  of  the  Lord 
loill  come  asa  thief  in  the  night."  The  day  of  death  will 
be  to  you  the  day  of  judgment;  the  sentence  of  which 
will  be  confirmed  amid  the  pomp  and  splendors  of  the 
final  scene. 

How  fearful  will  be  the  consequences  if  found  unprepared  ! 
What  shame  and  confusion,  what  consternation  and  des- 
pair will  overwhelm  the  spirit,  as  it  is  ushered  into  the 
presence  of  the  infinite  Judge,  with  all  its  neglected  op- 
portunities, its  unheeded  calls  and  warnings  and  invita- 
tions full  in  recollection  !  What  self-reproaches,  what 
bitter  regrets,  what  agonies  of  remorse  will  convulse  and 
tear  the  soul !  But  the  righteous  sentence  must  be  pro- 
nounced !  "Depart  ye  cursed  into  everlasting  fire,  prepar- 
ed for  the  devil  and  his  angels."  O,  what  a  pang  of 
insufferable  woe  does  this  sentence  strike  through  the 
soul !  and  yet  it  is  but  the  beginning  of  sorrows.  It  is  but 
a  foretaste  of  the  worm  that  never  dies,  and  th^  fire  that  is 
never  quenched.  The  sinner  now  finds  himself  in  the 
hands  of  the  omnipotent  God,  beneath  whose  all-con- 
suming wrath  he  mustsink  forever.  Resistance  is  vain; 
tears  are  of  no  avail.  Repentance  now  comes  too  late. 
The  day  of  probation  is  closed;  his  doom  is  sealed.  And 
Oh,  what  a  doom ! 

Banishment  from  heaven,  and  eternal  misery  in  hell!  Yes, 
the  bright  abodes  of  purity  and  peace,  where  angels  and 
saints  mingle  their  praises  and  joys  in  sweet  and  holy 
fellowship,  he  shall  never  see,  except  "*far  off,"  and 
only  to  aggravate  his  pain.  Separated  for  ever  from  the 
good  and  holy,  his  dwelling  is  amidst  the  "blackness  of 
darkness,"  his  companions  devils  and  damned  souls,  desti- 
tute of  every  lovely  feature,  "hateful, and  hating  one  an- 
other." Scenes  of  horror  and  sounds  of  woe,  the  mournful 
fruits  of  sin,  such  as  eye  has  not  seen,  nor  imagination 


O 


PREPARE    TO    MEET   THY    GOD.  O 

conceived,  meet  his  eye  and  his  ear  in  every  direction  : 
it  is  indeed  "a  place  of  torment.''  Hope,  that  sweet  solace 
amid  the  trials  of  this  life,  now  dies.  Eternal  punish- 
ment is  written  on  all  sides  of  this  infernal  prison,  and 
is  echoed  in  all  the  wailings  of  the  lost. 

Reader,  is  this  to  be  your  portion?  It  will  be,  unless 
you  listen  to  the  gracious  admonition  now  addressed  to 
you — "Prepare  to  meet  thy  God."  Can  you  be  so  thought- 
less, so  rash,  so  hardened,  as  to  neglect  it?  Will  you  give 
heed  to  the  admonition  of  an  earthly  friend,  and  not  lis- 
ten to  "Him  who  speaks  from  heaven  ?"  Will  you  prepare 
in  summer  for  the  desolation  of  winter  ;  in  health  for 
sickness  ;  in  )routh  for  approaching  age:  prepare  for  every 
earthly  contingency,  and  yet  make  no  preparation  for 
eternity?  Will  you  prepare  a  habitation  for  the  body,  which 
must  soon  crumble  to  dust,and  neglect  the  never-dying 
spirit?  Will  you  prepare  to  meet  the  chief  magistrate  of 
the  nation,  and  make  no  preparation  to  meet  God,  the 
Judge  of  all? 

Is  the  happiness  of  the  immortal  soul  of  so  little  value, 
that  you  can  afford  to  part  with  it  for  the  few  uncer- 
tain and  short-lived  pleasures  of  this  life  ?  Are  tlvy  suffi- 
cient to  counterbalance  theendlcssqxiivs  of the  second death  '■ 
Oh,  no,  you  cannot  eay  this,  you  do  not  believe  it.  Why, 
then,  not  awake  immediately  to  your  peril  and  your  duty  ? 
God  is  now  calling  upon  you;  the  Savior  extends  his 
compassionate  arms ;  the  Holy  Spirit,  it  may  be,  is  stri- 
ving with  you  ;  Christians  are  praying  for  you;  the  an- 
gels  are  waiting  to  rejoice  over  you  ;  and  are  you  only  in- 
different? 

Do  you  plead  your  pressing  engagements !  What  en- 
gagements? This  is  the  prime  business  of  life — the  onlv 
thing  worth  living  for:  and  this  neglected,  whatever 
else  is  attended  to  or  obtained,  life  is  lost;  all  in  lost  for 
ever. 

Are  you  waiting  for  a  more  convenient  season  ?  Whnt 
reason  have  you  to  believe  that  you  will  ever  see  such  a 
season?  The  present  is  all  the  time  of  which  you  are 
eure ;  the  future  may  be  in  eternity.  If  net,  it  may  find 
you  surrounded  with  more  hinderances,  and  more  callous 
to  every  impression  of  truth      God,  iri  h<~  righteous  an- 


4  PREPARE    TO    MEET    THY    GOD. 

g*i\  may  withdraw  his  Spirit,  give  you  up  to   your  own 
lusts,  and  swear,  in  his  wrath,  that  you  shall  never  enter 

his  rent.  .,i  ^  i  i       i 

0,  how  many  beacons  warn  youot  the  danger  otdelaj  . 
How  many  blighted  hopes  and  ruined  souls  admonish 
you  to  prepare  now  to  meet  God  !  It  falls  from  the  ^asp- 
ia-g  lips  of  the  dving  sinner,  and  comes  up  m  tones  ot 
aiKmish  and  despair  from  the  bottomless  pit:  ''Prepare 
to  meet  thy  God."  It  is  echoed  from  heaven  and  earth , 
from  time  and  eternity,  and  from  the  voice  or  your  own 
conscience  within,  "Prepare  to  meet  thy  God.  JNow, 
in  this  excepted  time,  this  day  of  salvation,  make  your 
peace  with  God.  .    . 

I  will  indulge  the  thought  that  your  eareless  mind  at 
length  begins  to  think,  and  your  hard  heart  to  feel,  and 
that  vou  begin  to  inquire,  "What  shall  Idoto  be  saved  ( 

Most  gladly  would  I  endeavor  to  answer  the  question. 
If  then,  a  single  serious  thought  has  arisen  in  your  mind, 
cherish  it.  As  you  value  your  immortal  soul,  let  it  nor  go 
till  it  has  led  you  to  peace  and  safety.  Now  form  the 
purpose  at  once,  that  preparation  to  meet  God  shall,  from 
this  moment,  be  the  great  business  of  life.  Look  up  to 
God  to  confirm  this  purpose.  Fall  at  once  before  God, 
and  with  a  broken  and  penitent  heart  confess  your  sins, 
ajul  resolve,  in  his  strength,  utterly  and  for  ever  to  forsake 
them.  Impkn-e  his  forgiveness,  and  yield  yourself  up  to  film 
to  be  his  servant  for  ever.  . 

Belies  ire  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Without  him  you  are 
lost.  "There  is  no  other  name  under  hearen  given  among 
men  whereby  we  must  be  saved."  Trust  in  him  with  all 
your  heart,  and  vou  are  safe.  "  His  blood  cleanses  from 
all  sin."  Guilty  and  hell-deserving  as  you  are  you  need 
not  fear  to  go  to  him.  He  himself  has  said,  "  Him  that 
cometh  unto  me  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out.  Go,  now 
and  commityour  condemned  and  polluted  soul  to  his  hands, 
and  you  will  find  "how  freely  J^us  can  forgive 

And  now,  my  friend,  what  is  your  decision  ?  Whatever 
it  is,  it  is  recorded  in  heaven,  and  you  will  meet  it  at  trie 
last  day.     Will  it  be  with  joy  or  grief  ? 


